My last sermon (if I get eaten by a bear)

This will be the last sermon posted until mid-September as I head off on sabbatical.

Hebrews 9:1-14

I was told this week that there’s a lot of pressure on me with today’s sermon, because it’s the last thing people will remember before I go off into the wilderness and get eaten by a bear. So, there’s that.

            Also, thanks to the lectionary, I’m stuck preaching on a story about church buildings when I’m getting increasingly excited about getting out of the building, so to speak. At first, I thought this was a bit jarring. Then, I thought, maybe I should actually read the scripture (which is a novel thought, I know), and once I got through Hebrews 9 I had a bit of an epiphany. This is about something that might actually play very well with where I’m going, because this is scripture about Jesus taking us through the walls of right practice and dogma and the sacredness of the buildings we’ve erected and opening the doors to something better further in.

            This is a story of how Jesus takes a church that is all about walls and whispers, very quietly, only for those who are listening, “There are no walls anymore.”

            First, a little bit of history about the temple in Jerusalem. When you imagine the temple, if you’re like me you probably first go to an image of a single, immense building like the National Cathedral or Notre Dame. But that’s not exactly right. Neither the original Temple of Solomon nor the second temple under Herod was a big, monolithic building. In Jesus’ day, that temple of Herod consisted of the temple precinct, which was basically the neighborhood. It may have been as much as a mile wide. Then there was the Court of Women. That’s where you who were born with two X chromosomes could go. Further in was the Court of the Israelites, which was where Jewish men could go. Then, the Court of the Priests, then the Temple Court, which was where the offerings were taken to the altar and at this point you were finally entering the temple building itself. Then, the temple vestibule or porch, the temple sanctuary, and finally the Holy of Holies.

            The temple was an onion that you peel back to find another layer, and each layer was separated by another wall. Walls upon walls upon walls. And in those walls were religious people doing religious things. What’s not to like? Well, according to Jesus, perhaps a lot.

You probably don't know Melchizedek

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

You know how you’re reading through your Bible and come to some reference you don’t understand, but you keep on reading because, honestly, if you stopped for every reference you didn’t understand you’d only ever be reading a Bible encyclopedia? Does this sound familiar to anyone? Have you ever stood up and read the Bible in front of people and felt like a bit of a fraud, because even though you are reading the words you don’t know what they mean?

            I’m guessing a lot of parents don’t read the Bible to their kids for exactly this reason. At least when this happens with Harry Potter we can be like, “It’s a wizard thing, kid. Don’t worry about it.” But the Bible? It feels too important to not understand everything, and yet we don’t, because there’s a lot going on. And we don’t get it. And that makes us feel shame.

            So it is with this guy named Melchizedek. Honest moment from me right now. I know I stand up here and have a week to prep on things, so I can say some smart-sounding stuff about people in the Bible, but I’m really glad nobody came up to me last week and asked, “So, what do you know about Melchizedek?” Because I had no clue. Zero. And if I spent a serious amount of time studying this stuff—undergrad plus four years of seminary plus seven-and-a-half in the parish—then how can you possibly be expected to know any of this?

            Answer: You aren’t.